What's the going rate for kids lunch money in high school?

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EllieW47@reddit

My son's school has just put the price of lunch up to £2.90 for the standard meal options. There are plenty of other options, and they also serve breakfast and break. They don't take cash. The kids have an account that parents can top up and they use their fingerprint to pay. The standard maximum spend per day is £5 but parents can change it.

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HannaaaLucie@reddit

When I was in my last school in 07 - 09, I was given £2 a day to buy lunch with. Of course, my friends and I shared a packet of crisps and put the rest of the money together for cigarettes. I dread to think how much lunch money is nowadays.

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GlitchingGecko@reddit

It was £5 for a sandwich, crisps and a coke at college for me and that was 18 years ago. Unless they're getting a meal deal from a shop on the way to school, I don't see how even a fiver would cut it.

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DurhamOx@reddit

Was your school in Monaco?

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GlitchingGecko@reddit

Ha. No. Northants.

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scottishnq@reddit

What the fuck, £5 for a sandwich, crisps and juice is robbery! A meal deal sandwich, crisps and juice costs £3.50 at Sainsbury’s now so that £5 is wild considering that’s probably about £8 now! I went to school from 2010 - 2018 and for the first 2 years, we were getting a 10 inch pizza and a can of ku ice from Pizza Hut for £1.50, then it went up to £2 and eventually £5. A large portion of chips and cheese with a can of juice was like £3 from any of the the chip shops nearby. There were some baguette / sandwich shops, but I’m not sure how much they cost since I never went.

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GlitchingGecko@reddit

I was at college from 04 - 06. There were no shops close enough to get to during lunch, so if you or a mate didn't have a car you had to pay cafeteria prices or bring packed. Pizza and Chips was £4, and that was about the size of a mini Chicago town pizza and tasted shit, and one small scoop of chips. Really not worth it. Jacket Potatoes were good value, but they only did a limited amount a day, so you had to be lucky to get one.

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scottishnq@reddit

Sounds grim! I am just realising though that my high school was placed a like 8 minute walk from a busy high street with lots of options, so we were pretty lucky there was competition to drive the prices down. Off the top of my head, there were 3 chippies, a Turkish Kebab Shop, a Pizza Hut, 2 baguette shops, 2 or 3 sandwich shops, 1 or 2 bakeries, a Sainsbury’s, 2 corner shops and a few other places like a sweet shop etc.

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GlitchingGecko@reddit

We weren't even allowed out of our high school at lunch without written permission from a parent, so that would have been a no go even at school. Pretty sure you weren't even allowed out if you were sixth form either.🤦🏻‍♂️

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DurhamOx@reddit

I got £3 and it was just about enough. My parents could've given me more but they wanted me to learn to live within my means. It didn't work.

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jcl3638@reddit

My niece keeps getting caught selling lollipops out of her school bag. She made £177 in two days 😅

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this_duck_has_spoken@reddit

£2.80 at my children's school.

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Remote-Pool7787@reddit

My kids come home for lunch, always have. Was quite common when I was in primary school (1994-2000) but unusual now. I have 3 kids in primary school and it’s too expensive even to give them packed lunches. They usually have soup and bread for lunch or sometimes beans on toast.

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Moreghostthanperson@reddit

It was £2.40 for a meal at the secondary school I worked in a year or so ago, that included a drink, but then you’ve got the stuff they sell at morning break as well, so it soon adds up unless you send them with a snack. Most schools as cashless now so no way for bullies to steal lunch money these days.

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dukeliminal@reddit

Ever so slightly off topic but in our primary school we have to pay a “surcharge” for sending our kid in with a packed lunch that we paid for and made ourself. £1.80 per day. School lunches are £2.80 per day. Their reasoning was that lunchtime supervision was covered in the cost of school lunches and the packed lunch kids would be getting free supervision and they couldn’t possibly have that!

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Important_Ad716@reddit (OP)

That's ludicrous. I hope that's not all schools.

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Moreghostthanperson@reddit

Definitely not all schools and I don’t think it’s the norm at all. Sounds pretty cheeky of the school to me.

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dukeliminal@reddit

No. Not all schools. When I found out (my wife deals with most of the school stuff) I had a look online and found a couple of articles about it like [this one from 2016](https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/school-packed-lunches-parents-charged_uk_56fa401fe4b0691b0c560998/).

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Moreghostthanperson@reddit

Thanks for sharing the article, I’ve never heard of this happening before. Seems a bit naughty seeing as kids don’t really have a choice but to eat their lunch at school anyway.

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SpaTowner@reddit

Are they allowed off the premises to eat their lunch?

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dukeliminal@reddit

No as it’s a primary school. Not practical to collect them at lunch each day.

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PotentialBat132@reddit

How do they enforce this, fuck if I would ever pay for that shit

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Dazz316@reddit

That sounds like mobster shit

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Chilton_Squid@reddit

> Bullies must be raking it in Nope, it's all on prepaid cards or fingerprint these days so nicking people's lunch money is long gone.

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Harrry-Otter@reddit

It was £5 back when I was at school in the early 00s, and it wasn’t like I was eating foie gras and caviar. That got a you breakfast, couple of drinks and a bowl of shit pasta.

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What's the going rate for kids lunch money in high school?

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25 Comments

EllieW47@reddit

HannaaaLucie@reddit

GlitchingGecko@reddit

DurhamOx@reddit

GlitchingGecko@reddit

scottishnq@reddit

GlitchingGecko@reddit

scottishnq@reddit

GlitchingGecko@reddit

DurhamOx@reddit

jcl3638@reddit

this_duck_has_spoken@reddit

Remote-Pool7787@reddit

Moreghostthanperson@reddit

dukeliminal@reddit

Important_Ad716@reddit (OP)

Moreghostthanperson@reddit

dukeliminal@reddit

Moreghostthanperson@reddit

SpaTowner@reddit

dukeliminal@reddit

PotentialBat132@reddit

Dazz316@reddit

Chilton_Squid@reddit

Harrry-Otter@reddit